Computers are now a part of everyday life and are relied upon by many people for performing work, communication and entertainment. Despite advances in computer hardware and software, computers still do crash, freeze, or are otherwise unable to start up due to a variety of reasons. Some of these problems are due to bugs in the operating system or in software applications, some are due to malware, and some may be even due to a user inadvertently deleting a file or changing a configuration setting.
In these situations the computer is unable to bootstrap properly and will not start up. In other words, even though the user may restart the computer or even turn it off and on again, the operating system will not bootstrap properly and the computer will not work. The only remedy is to reinstall the operating system from a known clean version of the operating system. Unfortunately, individuals lacking computer skills may inadvertently lose valuable data while performing this process, and in any case the process can be time-consuming. Further, for those with portable computers, not everyone carries the original operating system installation disks around with them.
One option is for the user to use a formatted bootstrap disk which includes the basic operating system files and utility software tools in order to bootstrap the computer manually. The user would bootstrap the computer from the operating system resident on the bootstrap disk. Once the computer starts up, the user may manually attempt to fix any problems found. The bootstrap disk may be a traditional disk such as a CD-ROM or may also be a USB drive. One disadvantage of this approach is that the user will not typically carry the necessary bootstrapping disks around with them (nor even the appropriate USB drive). Even if the user is at home, it is still necessary to find the appropriate disks, which sounds easy, but in practice, may also be time consuming. This option also requires some technical sophistication that is lacking in most users. Many people simply lack the technical ability to trace problems and manually reconfigure a computer in order to correct a problem. In addition, bootstrapping from the original operating system disk invariably means that the user must then perform the many software updates that have been released to update the operating system and software applications since the original operating system was first released.
Another option is to use a so-called rescue disk, which, as the term implies, is a special compact disk loaded with a version of the operating system that has been tailored for the purpose of rescuing a computer system that will not bootstrap. Such a disk is typically provided by antivirus vendors for a customer to scan, disinfect and restore an infected operating system. As such, the rescue disk is typically a bootstrap disk along with associated antivirus features. By inserting the rescue disk into the drive of the infected computer, the computer will be able to bootstrap from the rescue disk, and possibly allow the user to scan and clean malware from the computer.
As with the bootstrap disk, a user will not typically carry a rescue disk with him. In order for the rescue disk to query an antivirus service in the cloud, the rescue disk must make use of the computer's network connection. But, it can be problematic for the bootstrap image on the rescue disk to support all types of network cards that are found in many computers. Thus, the network connection may be nonexistent or limited when bootstrapping using a rescue disk.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/683,874, discloses a technique for using a USB drive to bootstrap an affected computer. The USB drive includes an operating system for the affected computer, as well as communication software, monitoring software, and remote control software for use in diagnosing and fixing the computer. While this technique is an improvement over the prior art at the time, it relies upon the affected computer for executing the additional software and for communicating with a remote support center.
Given the above disadvantages with the prior art, and given the need for a user to be able to quickly and easily recover from a computer that will not bootstrap properly (whether that computer is a desktop computer, laptop computer or other), a system and technique is desired to remedy the disadvantages found in the prior art.